Youth pictured wearing KKK uniform and blackface at Halloween

A shocking photo taken at a Halloween party in Maryborough shows two high school students, one dressed as a Ku-Klux-Klansman, and another in blackface and chains.

The photo of two youths, one in a Ku Klux Klan hood and another in blackface has horrified Maryborough residents.

A photo allegedly taken at a Halloween party of a young person dressed in what appears to be a Ku-Klux-Klan hood and robe, and another painted black and with chains around his wrists, has caused outrage since surfacing on social media via a Facebook album.

The private party in Maryborough was reportedly attended by a number of former and past students of Maryborough State High School, which said on Friday it was treating the matter “very seriously” and had spoken to both families involved.

It has labelled the costumes “inappropriate and offensive” and said support would be put in place for any student who needed it.

The person who alerted the Chronicle to the photo said it was “evidence of not enough education being offered with regards to Maryborough’s indigenous history”.

The Fraser Coast has a fraught history with its First Nations people that includes stories of massacre and brutality.

The photo of two youths, one in a Ku-Klux-Klan hood and another in blackface, has been slammed as “inappropriate and offensive”.

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The anonymous source who contacted the Chronicle said the costumes worn at the party were “racist and offensive” and had been put together for “a quick laugh”.

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She urged Fraser Coast schools “to engage more with indigenous elders within the region and provide programs which are not tokenistic in nature”.

The hood worn resembles those worn by the Ku-Klux-Klan, a white supremacist hate group emerging out of the southern American states in the 1860s before rising to infamy as violent opponents to the Civil Rights Movement.

While not as prominent as it once was, the KKK is still believed to have thousands of members in the United States.

A Queensland Department of Education statement said:

Maryborough State High School is aware of the existence of a photograph depicting a current and former student dressed in inappropriate and offensive costumes at a private Halloween function last weekend, outside school hours and not on school grounds.

The school is treating the matter very seriously and has spoken to both families.

We also regularly communicate our behaviour expectations to our school community, including behaving safely and respectfully in all settings.

Support will be in place for any student who requires it.

No further details can be provided due to student privacy reasons.

Originally published as Youth pictured wearing KKK uniform and blackface at Halloween